Pretty much I can make an argument that every piece of
anything ever created/said/thought/written/sung contributes to oppression. Why is
this? Possibly because everyone is different and something one person considers
to be sacred and holy defiles another person’s spirit. Also any creation comes
from one person. One person attempting to share his or her thoughts or feelings
will probably upset someone else.
I feel like I could be spending my efforts on something
helpful to society but instead I will painfully create some elaborate way that
Stephen King is destroying the world.
Okay I know I’m coming off a little strong so let’s go back
to the original point of this blogpost…
“The object is to illuminate--what's really going on here
that, once identified, we might be able to change?”
I personally believe that not everything needs to be
changed. If we all were forced to only share what will not offend then there
would be no talking at all. The point of art, poetry, and media is to make the
viewer or consumer feel uncomfortable. His or her reaction is where the REAL
change comes from-not from critiquing every move an author makes in his attempt
to write a fictional story.
Alas I will do what I was asked for the sake of my grade…
1.
Exploitation- Stephen King writes book after
book after book all in an attempt to get richer off the backs of the middle
class who are reading his books. Although he writes about how wrong this is and
gives examples of how ugly exploitation gets, like in his novel The Shining when Jack and Wendy are
taken advantage of because of their financial situation, King is only using
this as a distraction to make his readers believe he is on our side. This
clearly gets the reader to trust King and so a cycle of buying and ingesting
his material persists.
2.
Marginalization- Stephen King writes about
issues such as school shootings because he probably doesn’t see them as an
issue in society. King’s book Rage
got pulled out of circulation because it marginalized school shootings. King is
a perpetrator, allowing for children all over the country whose lives have been
affected by school shootings to be continually agonized. (Dear God this one hurt
to write. For a more accurate explanation of Rage go to the following website: http://www.pageofreviews.com/2014/04/marginalization-and-stephen-kings-rage/)
3.
I can’t actually argue that King promotes
powerlessness… read Carrie, The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, Rose Madder, or Christine. King writes in an attempt to free females from stereotypes
and the culture that surrounds Americans on what it means to be “feminine.”
4.
Cultural Dominance- King writes about anything
and everything. I can’t honestly think of an example where one culture rules
over others…
5.
Violence- King’s characters are often full of
explosive violence- often directed at one character or a group of people. This just
encourages bullies and anyone who uses violence as a means to oppress.
*Stephen King, if you were to ever
read this, disregard everything.
Everything is an argument, so what kind do you feel you are making? I can certainly see that your desire to create an argument where you essentially have none can capably break new ground, with the sarcasm on top. But here's an interesting thought that can certainly carry over to many different things. Is there oppression that we are indirectly adding to? I could certainly say we are responsible for putting twisted words right, although not responsible for the words themselves. What does it take then to hold somebody responsible? Can even that be twisted still into another form of oppression, where you twist a matter to hold innocents responsible? There is so much evil that we are capable of. Perhaps nothing is safe from our poison and power grabbing greed.
ReplyDeleteIt really does seem like oppression is everywhere in everything and that thought kind of scares me. It seems so easy for us to oppress others that we don't even realize what we are doing. I have to agree with Sam, there is so much evil that we are capable of and it seems like most of it is unintentional. I can't help to ponder whether or not we are justified in our actions when we are not intentionally trying to oppress others. Can someone hold us accountable for something we don't even know we are doing?
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ReplyDeleteI agree with Sam and Mahvish. Unfortunately, we as a human race are evil. Yes, there are many good people in the world, but we all have some "evil" within us, whatever your operational definition of "evil" may be, even if it's unintentional. Do you think it's possible (even though you love Stephen King) that his books may contain more forms of oppression than you think? Do you truly believe Rage marginalized school shootings? Could there be other topics he marginalized as well?
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